Dear economy passengers, on behalf of everyone worldwide, I apologize. As you excitedly board your new Emirates A380, full of excitement to fly the five star carrier, you’ll undoubtedly walk past some fantastic, industry leading business seats and suites. Despite witnessing the luxurious seats, you’ll still be markedly excited by what, until now, has been an airline leading economy experience, full of width, pitch and in flight entertainment. Only now, on certain routes, you may feel like you’re walking to prison, a prison complete with 557 economy seats. Can you imagine the masses of humanity at boarding? The carry ons? Using the lavatory?! Courtesy of Airbus and Emirates there are many more seats coming to the A380 economy cabin. Yes, it’s real and it’s debuting very soon.
Holy ****! Emirates will seriously fit 615 people on one plane starting in December. And yes, for those keeping score, that is the most ever. That is a shocking number, especially when most competing carriers are about one hundred passengers shy of that figure on their Airbus A380’s. Again yes, there will be more economy passengers on these flights than there would be total passengers on any other carrier. Most news from the Dubai Air Show involves new planes, exciting new seats, and faster wifi. Emirates have instead chosen to showcase it’s new A380 configuration minus a first class and with a hell of a lot more economy seats; for routes with less business and first class traffic such as Dubai to Bangkok, Dubai to Copenhagen and Dubai to Kuala Lumpur. God help us. Here’s a video including the inside of the new 615 passenger jet!
I don’t think even Don Draper or the greatest of PR spinsters could ever twist this one into a passenger plus. This is a huge double down on the passenger experience and an obvious example of an airline forcing expansion, even on routes it doesn’t find particularly profitable. People are not cattle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again in hopes that someone with decision making power at an airline listens: passengers are getting smarter, are better informed and having an economy product that passengers would be proud to sit in is a competitive advantage, not a crutch. If you happen to be flying between Dubai and any of these cities, best of luck.
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